NCJ Number
140860
Date Published
1989
Length
2 pages
Annotation
In a series of studies by the British Home Office, the criminal careers of all people born in four randomly selected weeks in each of the years 1953, 1958, and 1963 were analyzed; traffic offenses and minor offenses such as drunkenness and soliciting were not included in the study.
Abstract
One in three males born in 1953 had been convicted of a standard list offense by the age of 31. The annual rate of conviction for males rose rapidly between the ages of 8 and 17. The rate then fell steadily, with 1,900 males being convicted at the age of 30. One in 14 females born in 1953 had been convicted by the age of 31. As with males, the rate of conviction rose rapidly to peak at age 17, followed by a steady decline. A small number of males accounted for most of the convictions. Nearly 40 percent of convicted males had only one conviction by the age of 31. The 20 percent of males with six or more convictions accounted for two-thirds of all male convictions. Males convicted at a young age were more likely to be reconvicted than males first convicted later. Of the males born in 1953, approximately 1 in 16 had been given a custodial sentence by the age of 31. More than half of these males had been given a custodial sentence on only one occasion. Less than half of 1 percent of the females born in 1953 had been given a custodial sentence by the age of 31.